FOR THE RECORD: We're (all) driven by deadlines

Thursday

Jun 28, 2012 at 12:01 AMJun 28, 2012 at 2:39 AM

“Deadline – a date or time before which something must be done.”

It could very well be the Webster’s dictionary definition of the word “deadline,” but this quote happens to come from a scene in “The Paper,” one of the best – if not the best – movies of all time in capturing the characters and spirit of a newsroom.

Gregory Mathis

“Deadline – a date or time before which something must be done.”

It could very well be the Webster’s dictionary definition of the word “deadline,” but this quote happens to come from a scene in “The Paper,” one of the best – if not the best – movies of all time in capturing the characters and spirit of a newsroom.

Actor Robert Duvall (the 1994 movie also stars Michael Keaton and Glenn Close, and was directed by Ron Howard) is the editor of a New York City daily newspaper and he’s trying to get his editors in his office for a 3 p.m. story budget meeting.

“3:07,” Duvall yells from his office as the start time continues to slip, soon to be followed by another shout into the newsroom – “3:09”, adding, “Anyone around here respect a deadline anymore?”

When the editors finally arrive in his newsroom office, Duvall opens a dictionary and reads the quote that opens this column.

The fact of the matter is deadlines are a very important part of the newspaper production process and it starts with those in the community looking to get their information into the paper.

Deadlines for submissions from the public, including regular columnists, press releases from groups and organizations, wedding/engagement announcements and people in the news items, letters to the editor, user generated photos and more, are the first step in the process. Those deadlines are earlier and well before the paper hits the streets and even the press deadline, mostly because there’s a system for handling that type of copy that takes some time.

Our reporters and photographers have deadlines too. They need to file stories and photographs ahead of the production deadline to allow editors time to copy edit, headline and place stories and photographs on pages.

Editors have many deadlines in addition to managing the various deadlines for outside submissions and staff. And this is where the rubber meets the road because by this time in the process the paper is being designed in advance of it going to press and the margin for error decreases significantly.

If anyone has missed a deadline along the way, this is where it really starts to bottle up and this is where it starts to cost money.

You’ve heard the expression “time is money.” Nowhere is that more evident than in our business. With printing schedules lined up one after another and crews positioned to get newspapers on and off the presses in a timely manner, there’s even less margin for error at the backend of the process.

Deadlines – and everyone adhering to them – will become increasingly more important in the next several weeks as we transition to a new content management system for producing and designing our newspapers.

Deadlines differ from paper to paper and editor to editor, so please make sure to contact your local editor to find out what their deadline is and do your best to stick to it. That will help in more ways than you know.

Gregory Mathis is editor-in-chief of GateHouse Media New England’s South and Cape Cod units. He can be reached by email at gmathis@wickedlocal.com.